1054/Prey

Prey
Date of Scene:	08 April 2020
Location:	Alleyways: Brooklyn
Synopsis:	April runs afoul of the oppressed socio-economically disadvantaged. Helena bullies them.
Cast of Characters:	Helena Wayne, April O'Neil

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Helena Wayne has posed:
Generally, Helena didn't do 'patrols'.

Sure, she did plenty of them in the past. In her old life they were pretty much her bread and butter. She'd be given a neighborhood or collection of neighborhoods to keep watch over and intervene where she could. Since coming to this place, though, she'd avoided it. She preferred to give herself a mission. Structure.

But tonight is an exception to prove the rule.

She's been watching the trio of losers for over an hour now. Perched atop one of the fire escapes in a Brooklyn alleyway, leg dangling over the edge and her chin in her palm. Her eyes lazily track them as they boast at one another, talking up their achievements and letting each other know just what they're going to do to the next poor sucker who comes their way.

"Hurry up and actually do it," she mutters, lifting her hand to brush a strand of black hair from her eyes, "Christ."

April O'Neil has posed:
April was out late tonight and had been texting Harley about being on her way home. Her bike had sprung a flat tire on the Brooklyn Bridge and she'd had to walk it the rest of the way. Its happened before too, so she was used to it. Along the way she'd had a number of people honk horns at her, or make lewd calls out of their windows while she walked with her bike helmet on and her jacket tied around her waist, but she was used to that too and has flipped more middle fingers than she has taken breaths on the long walk.

Finally getting close to home she decided to just take a short cut, and that's where our poor trouble magnet Reporter can be found now, on her way through an alley way at sunset. She's holding her yellow and black bike (Bumblebee) in one hand by it's handle bars and the other is holding her phone as she stares down at it, not paying much attentiong.

Wearing a white Star Wars tshirt with a picture of Rey holding a blue lightsaber up beside her face, a pair of slim fit blue jeans and black boots up to her ankles, April looks... well... good. She's an eye candy reporter after all, and taking alleys is a terrible thing for her to do.

Helena Wayne has posed:
"Here we go," Helena mutters to herself, spotting April making her way down the alleyway before the trio of mouth breathers do, "Welcome to the party, lady."

She wonders, for the briefest of moments, whether she may be part of the problem here. She knows enough to see what's going to go down here, but she's still waiting for an excuse to intercede. Does that mean she's a noble hero who doesn't attack those who don't deserve it? Or does it just mean she wants to cover her bases in cases the worst they had planned was oggling and catcalling? Whichever it is, she waits.

Down in the alley, one of the guys peels off from the group and begins to walk lazily towards April and her Bumblebee: "Hey, you look familiar? Are you Ricky's cousin?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April has her eyes on her phone when the person approaches her, she should raise her head up but she just is being spacey and dumb. When the voice asks that question is when she raises her gaze up to look at him. "What?" She asks. "Ricky? Ricky who? No, I don't have any 'Rickys' as cousins. Sorry." She shows him a smirk, it's a little sassy but not really unfriendly. She's a Brooklyn girl, she's familiar with a lot of the people around this neighborhood, but... there's always those random beatniks like this that she doesn't recognize.

So she just tries to keep on pushing her bike along, but she does slip her phone into her front left pocket on her hip.

Helena Wayne has posed:
"You sure," the guy asks, taking a pointed step to get in front of the bike and prevent April from passing, "You look real familiar. I'm sure I've seen you somewhere before. You on TV? YouTube?"

Not far behind him, the other two guys who had been minding their own business with only casual glances in April's direction start to pay a bit more attention. They take a few steps closer, fully blocking the alleyway now so the only real way past would be to go over them.

There's a brief dimming of the moonlight shining down as something passes over it high above. A cloud, maybe? Though there's nothing to be seen. Meanwhile, Helena is on the move ...

April O'Neil has posed:
April just stops her bike as she sees the one cross in front of her and his words just make her smile out of annoyance as she looks away. She notices the movement behind her then and sees the other two. This is at the point where she speaks up. "Really, guys?" She says. "What is this a juvenile mugging?" She looks to the one in front of her bike and tilts her head sassily (new word). "Come on. Neither of us have time for this. I'm not a damsal in distress. I'm a god damn television reporter, and yes I have a Youtube channel. You're welcome to Subscribe to it! Don't forget to click that bell to get the latest notifications any time I post an Ad Friendly video!" She says that last bit as if she's recorded it a million times, because she has.

"Come on. Lets just drop the macho bullshit." She tries to move her bike around him, and doesn't notice the shadow from above!

Helena Wayne has posed:
"Macho bullshit?" the lead goon looks almost offended, eyebrows furrowing as he tries to get in April's face, "That's hurtful, you know. I'm from a lower socioeconomic bracket. Some of us have to do whatever we can just to lead a subsistence lifestyle, which includes crime because of an economy geared towards rewarding the rich and punishing the poor!"

As he rants, there's ... something going on behind him. A dark shadow tinged with purple descends from above, landing behind the leader's two companions. One of them turns to look at her and opens his mouth to say something before a gloved hand covers it, catching him in a headlock that sends him slumping silently to the ground. The other doesn't even get a chance to see what happened, caught from behind and sinking down to the asphalt as well.

A moment later, the leader is still ranting as Helena looms behind him pointedly.

"You Fifth Estate people are all the same. Observing the problem without doing anything to change it! Give me your damn wallet and your phone!"

April O'Neil has posed:
The speech from the man actually gets a real smile on April's lips. It's rooted in a clear level of SOME kind of education. She even chuckles at it, though the chuckle is restrained some and it's bundled in with a slow shake of her head. "You really paid attention in Economics Class, huh? What was the teacher a 'smokin' hot babe?'" April asks in a mocking tone to the guy, she also not noticing the scuffle with the purpley shadow at the other end of the alley since the Leader guy is mostly in her way.

"How rich do you think I am? I live in a closed down store, in an apartment I inherited from my dead parents. I can't afford to repair my air conditioner and the stair well is filled with Hyena shit!" There's a heavy sigh as April lifts up her wallet and opens it up, having drug it out of her right butt pocket. "Here, look." She opens it up and there's nothing inside it. "OooooOoooo, so worth all of this!" She taunts the thug.

But it's around this time that she sees the shadowy figure behind the man. Her gaze leaves him and her expression goes to concern. "Holy shit." She says softly. "Uh... you better turn around." She then tries to tell the guy.

Helena Wayne has posed:
The leader makes a 'huh?' sound as he peers in April's wallet. For all his education, he's still kind of an idiot and falls for the old 'look behind you!' trick. Except when he turns, he's looking up at Helena who is already an even six feet even without the inserts in his uniform's boots. She practically towers over the pair of them.

"Do me a favor and don't make me break your jaw, okay?" she asks the guy.

To his credit, the leader doesn't fight. He takes a careful and pointed step out of the way before he turns and takes off at a quick jog out of the alleyway and around the corner. He leaves his unconscious compatriots behind.

"Ah," Helena sighs, watching him go and turning back to April, "I was kind of hoping he'd make me beat him up. It's boring when they chicken out."

April O'Neil has posed:
April lowers her wallet when the guy turns around and she watches the exchange between him and the... caped crusader?

As the guy starts to run away, April looks after him. "Tell Ricky I said he ows me money!" She shouts at him for no reason in particular, she doesn't even know any Ricky's.

When she looks back though, she gets a full look at Helena in her outfit. April's eyes go up and down the lady in the fancy suit. "Wow...." She mouths the word and kinda whispers it aloud too. "That is awesome." April says then as she now points at Helena with her wallet holding hand. "And thank you." She now smiles at her and gives a little 'Awww' kind of noise of affection added in to it.

In truth, Helena COULD scold April for even coming down the alleyway and putting herself in this stupid position to begin with!

"I would've loved to watch you give him a good solid punch too." She adds with a slight grin now.

Helena Wayne has posed:
"Hey," Helena offers, raising an eyebrow behind the mask she wears, "If you want to put on a domino mask and a cape, you can follow me around and cheer me on while I punch them?"

It's only half a joke. Hey, that's how she spent her formative years. If it's good enough for Helena, it's good enough for anyone, right? Except April looks like she might be a bit old to become someone's sidekick.

"Anyway," she continues, "Maybe don't take shortcuts through alleyways. Have you not seen every action movie set in an urban hellscape ever?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April laughs softly at the suggestion of a domino mask. She sighs wistfully at the notion, but ultimately shakes her head. "You wouldn't want me along. I have two left feet really. I'd fall all over you, or off a building or into a dumpster or something." She grins softly to the other.

The advice is met with a nod. "I know, I know." She replies then and does a little frustrated growl. "I had a bad ride home, popped a tire on a broken bottle. Just wanted to get home safe and go relax... as much as I'm able to." She flashes a grin and then salutes the caped crusader.

"I promise, I'll stay on the much safer main streets and bare with the sexist remarks that people lean out of their cars to shout at me." With a calmer and more sincere look, April nods again. "But yeah, thanks. You be careful too, they're gonna get more angry at you the more you fight back... and that means they'll start taking cheap shot at you."

If she knows anything, it's the hero world from an outsider's perspective. Her whole damn podcast is essentially /about/ it. And she's talked to a LOT of failed heroes, some who got really far at it and failed, and others who never got out of their parents garage and failed.

Helena Wayne has posed:
"I've been doing this my whole life," Helena answers, which seems odd considering she's never really shown up on the news and her costume doesn't really look like anything the broad superhero fanbase have discussed, "I can handle them."

She glances back down at the unconscious men on the ground, nudging one of them with the toe of her boot. Satisfied he's thoroughly unconscious, she turns her attention back to April once again.

"If you ever need someone to terrorise sexist assholes for you by sneaking into their houses and looming over them, just ask, okay?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April gives a grin to the masked woman and she starts to move her bike back in the original direction she'd been going. She weaves it between the two men on the ground and nudges one of their arms out of the way so she doesn't roll over it. As she hears Helena's words on her way out she looks back over her shoulder. "Oh yeah?" She asks. "And what do I call you, my fearless rescuer?" She calls back with a showing smile.

Helena Wayne has posed:
Okay, she hadn't thought that far.

Her operation had been a solo one. She didn't really need to have people refer to her by a codename, and most of the criminals she'd dealt with were too busy screaming to bother calling her anything but 'Oh Jesus, not you!'

Robin? No, that was the past. That was gone. There was a different Robin here. Besides, she was too old for that now. A Robin approaching thirty? Talk about failure to launch. What else could she be? Batman? Batwoman? No, those didn't feel right either.

Finally she clears her throat a little, turning to face April more fully and says: "Huntress."

Yeah, okay. Huntress works. She can work with that for now.

That said, she moves towards the fire escape and with a vertical leap that's impressive if not quite superhuman she takes to the ladder and begins to clamber silently up and into the darkness.